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Saturday, 4 January 2014

As India and
British-Italian helicopter maker AgustaWestland get ready for a long drawn out
international legal battle, the company has welcomed New Delhi’s move to
appoint an arbitrator while pointing out to the Ministry of Defence that its
own statement in February 2013 had said all procedures for the tender were
followed.

On January 1, the
Ministry of Defence had cancelled the contract it had signed in 2010 with
AgustaWestland for the supply of 12 helicopters at a cost of Rs 3,600 crore for
ferrying top VVIPs like the Prime Minister and the President. In the same
cancellation order, the MoD said it had appointed Justice BP Jeevan Reddy as
its arbitrator.

AgustaWestland in
a statement issued in New Delhi said it “welcomes the appointment of an
arbitrator”, saying it had requested the MoD on November 25 and December 4,
2013, for having arbitration.

The company cited
the MoD’s own press release on February 14, 2013, which said the tender process
has been duly followed and added it will soon propose the names of the persons
for the purpose of selecting the third arbitrator by agreement of the parties.

On its part, the
MoD has invoked a clause to encash the whopping 270 million Euro bank guarantee
that helicopter maker AgustaWestland had paid when signing the deal. The money
works out to almost Rs 1,700 crore and is close to 45 per cent of the entire Rs
3,600 crore deal

We have initiated
the process to encash the bank guarantee, an MoD official said. India has so
far paid almost Rs 1,160 crore as the first installment to the copter maker and
the payments were ‘frozen’ in February last year. Three of the copters had
already been delivered before the contract was frozen after allegations of
kickbacks surfaced in February last year.

“The MoD is not going to lose
any money. India will not lose any money,” a ministry source said amid concerns
over the fate of the money already paid. AugustaWestland deal has bank guarantee
which are in international and Indian banks.

The ministry would soon take a
call on the fate of three choppers. It is unprecedented that any defence deal
had been scrapped midway during the acquisition under such circumstances, they
said.

India terminated with
immediate effect the agreement, which was signed on February 8, 2010, on
grounds of breach of “the Pre-contract Integrity Pact (PCIP) and the agreement”
by the firm, the ministry had said yesterday.

Controversy over the 2010 deal
for the supply of 12 helicopters for Indian VVIPs erupted in February last year
with the arrest of two top officials of the firm in Italy, triggering a
political storm here.

On New Year's Day
2014, India's 1st Mountain Strike Corps has been launched, designed for
mountain warfare along the border with China.

A Corps is the
largest fighting formation in the Indian Army with troops usually numbering
40,000 to 60,000 directly coming under its command.

India has 13
full-fledged Corps out of which three--1, 2 and 21-- are designated as Strike
Corps for an offensive against Pakistan. The new Corps allows India to plug the
gap in its preparedness along the China border both in the Northern and Eastern
Sectors

The eventual
strength of the Corps is meant to be 80,000 troops. The Corps is currently
headquartered in Ranchi in Jharkhand, but is expected to move to Panagarh in
West Bengal.The move will happen after
the infrastructure needed in Bengal is developed -that includes training area,
ammunition dumps, barracks and location for various units including infantry,
artillery, army aviation, signals, ordnance, and supply formations.

The latest Corps
of the army has a budget of 64,000 crores over seven years.The new mountain Corps will require light
artillery which can be easily airlifted to the highest mountains. Given India's
painfully-slow process of weapons acquisition, empowering the Mountain Strike
Corps quickly will be a big challenge

At least six
C-130J aircraft of the Indian Air Force will be attached to the Corps at
Panagarh. The C-130J is a versatile medium-lift transport aircraft which can
transport at a time up to 200 fully-equipped soldiers from the Parachute or
Special Forces regiments.

The government's
ambitious project to computerise Indian Army's inventory in a phased manner
could suffer more delays, with technology companies Oracle India and Infosys
Ltd raising concerns about the manner in which the project has been tendered.

Over the past
three months, Oracle and Infosys have written to the defence ministry alleging
"preferential procurement practices" while selecting the
implementation agencies for the project. The letters have also been marked to
Defence Minister A K Antony and the Central Vigilance Commission.

The initiative,
the Computerised Inventory Control Project, was first opened for bids in 2008
and has been tendered thrice. The current phase, the second, aims to bring
Indian Army's inventory - including arms and ammunition, vehicles and fuel - to
the central ordinance depot level online by using an enterprise resource
planning (ERP) software. While the second phase was expected to cover 4,000
users, the next phase is aimed at increasing the users by four times. The
current project was tipped around Rs 500 crore.

In a letter dated
November 19, Oracle India had alleged that "all bids quoting Oracle ERP
Solution have been rejected over last 4-5 years in all the defence ERP projects
during the technical evaluation leading to the commercials of only single ERP
being opened."

Financial bids of
two entities, which had qualified the technical rounds, were opened last month.
L&T Infotech emerged the lowest bidder, though it was competition with a
leading infotech firm. Both the entities had partnered with Oracle's rival ERP
firm, SAP. L&T has quoted Rs 450 crore for the project. However, the
contract has not yet been awarded.

The letter, seen
by Business Standard, gave details of the stages at which Oracle bids were
rejected for the project. It also named other projects of the various arms of
the defence where Oracle had been unsuccessful in bagging a contract. "We
are at a very initial stage of computerisation in Indian defence and removing
the competition in ERP projects will lead to a huge loss to the
exchequer," the Oracle letter added.

Infosys, which had
partnered with Oracle, said in its letter it had offered "an alternative
but technically compliant solution for ERP". It has requested a
"re-evaluation by a freshly constituted independent board which does not
have any representation from the existing evaluation committee." Oracle,
too, has asked for a re-evaluation by an independent and neutral committee.

The Infosys
letter, dated October 22, which was also seen by Business Standard, said,
"This would offer an unbiased evaluation of the POC (proof of concept) and
also clear any misgivings about any prejudice towards Infosys Ltd due to its
alternate ERP product which has eventually benefitted the organisation by
introducing competitiveness in an otherwise monopolistic environment."

The bids are
invited from Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of Defence Procurement
Manual 2009 or Permanent Registered Authorised Distributors of OEM, a senior
officer of the Electric and Mechnical Engineers (EMA) Branch at Northern
Command Headquarters said.

Mine prodders are
used for detection of IEDs, mines and other explosive substances buried under
ground and also used by road opening parties and Improvised Explosive Device
(IED) teams deployed in counter insurgency (operations) areas in Jammu and
Kashmir.

BEIJING: China's
military plans to set up a joint operational command so that the world's
biggest army could efficiently respond to a crisis, the state media reported,
amidst regional tensions over the PLA flexing its muscle over contesting
territorial claims.

Setting up a joint
operational command system is a basic requirement in an era of information and
the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has launched positive pilot programmes in
this regard, the ministry of national defence said.

The joint
operational command system would be established "in due course", the
China Daily reported.

Qoting observers,
the paper said the proposed joint operational command system will result in
more-coordinated and combat-capable forces to efficiently respond to a crisis.

The report comes
amidst rising tensions over Beijing's territorial claims in the region.

In November, China
unilaterally declared air defence rights over much of the East China Sea.
Besides, China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, triggering
tensions with countries like the Philippines.

The PLA is the
world's largest military force, with a strength of nearly 2,285,000 personnel.

The China Daily
report also comes shortly after the Japanese media said China is considering
reorganising its seven military regions into five.

Each of the new
military regions would create a joint operations command controlling the army,
navy and air force as well as a strategic missile unit, the Yomiuri Shimbun
newspaper reported.

Reacting to the
report, China's defence ministry said that the modernization of the PLA is not
targeted at any country.

Meanwhile, experts
said the PLA's structural reform is gathering pace as the country increases
sophisticated technology but also faces different security challenges.

Ouyang Wei, a
professor at the National Defence University of the People's Liberation Army,
said a joint command system highlights unified command and information sharing
across at least two different military forces.

It would help the
military respond quickly to a contingency, he said, adding that "The
system, which has been popular in the West for decades, is not (aimed at)
starting a war, but to kill it in the cradle."

Zhao Xiaozhuo,
deputy director of the center on China-US defense relations at the PLA Academy
of Military Science, said the seven military regions were established in 1985, with
the army as the backbone force.

China has been
trying to optimise the allocation of these military regions, given that
incidents are increasingly likely to happen at sea, said Zhao.

Li Qinggong,
deputy secretary-general of the China Council for National Security Policy
Studies, said the country will give top priority to modernise its navy,
including having more aircraft carriers and stronger fleets.

"China has
built an iron bastion in its border regions. The major concern lies at
sea," Li said.

JALPAIGURI: After
a rail link, a road - being planned by the Indian Army - is threatening the
rich wildlife of north Bengal.

The road, if
constructed, would pass through three major forested areas of the region -
Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary, Neora Valley National Park and Pangolakha
Wildlife Sanctuary - resulting in a mammoth loss of green vegetation that will
also hit the rich wildlife of the region. The road will also intersect one of
the main elephant corridors of the region, the
Chapramari-Panjhora-Hilajhora-Gorumara National Park corridor shrinking the
routes for the elephants which they have been using conventionally since years.

The Indian Army is
keen to construct this new road through Khunia More, on NH-31C in Jalpaiguri
district, Kumani, Todey, Tangta, Rachella and Sikkim's Aritar for a better
access to the NE state accessibility of the region keeping in mind the
infrastructural development that China is carrying out on the other side of the
Sino-Indian border. But what the Defence Ministry is overlooking is that the
road will ensure security to the nation at the cost of the country's national treasure
in the forms of lush flora, fauna and rich wildlife.

Not only this, the
proposed road will cut across whole of the Neora Valley NP from east to west.
Forests here area of these areas comprise the catchments and watershed of the
Neora river and its tributaries. Neora river is originating from the Rachella
block. It originates from Rock strata.

If the catchment
of Neora river is disturbed, in near future there will be an acute scarcity of
water in the towns, army establishments, and its surrounding rural areas.
Besides, any disturbance in forests will hit the watershed of Teesta and
catchment of Neora river which will impact the habitat of the whole of Neora
Valley. This, experts feel, may lead to complete change of vegetation and
extinction of many threatened, rare and endangered species of wild lives, flora
and fauna.

Located in the
Algara block of Kalimpong subdivision in Darjeeling district, the Neora Valley
National Park is a virgin forest spread over 88 sq km area in the Himalayas
ranging from 600 ft to 10600 ft. With a very thick vegetation of Oak, Sal,
Rhododendron, malling bamboo and ferns, the Neora Valley proudly houses some of
the endangered species of the world, including the Bengal tigers, red pandas,
clouded leopards, Himalayan black bears, sloth bear, Himalayan thar, serrow,
gural and several lesser cats.

Owing to the
uniqueness of this forest, it has been proposed to be included under World
Heritage Site.

If the proposed
road is constructed, it will cut through the core area of the Neora Valley from
Tangta to Zero Point in Rachella traversing a distance of some 30 kilometres
taking a toll on the vegetation spread over 200 hectares. In addition to this,
the road will also result in deforestation of green cover in Chapramari and
Pangolakha (Sikkim).

"This will
have a massive impact on the natural habitat of animals like tiger, red panda,
Himalayan black bear and clouded leopard. In a world where their number is
shrinking every day, Neora Valley is like a paradise for these Schedule-I
animals. The Indian Army should realize this. And secondly, if the water source
of the Neora river is disturbed, the entire park will be destroyed in no time.
The Army officials should construct a road parallel to the proposed route
bypassing the forestland. Protecting the nation's assets is also a duty of the
Army," argued Mousumi Dutta, a member of Society for Preservation and
Awareness of Wildlife & Nature (SPAWN).

In a meeting with
the Indian Army, the forest department of West Bengal had proposed two
alternative alignments to the Army for their consideration. The first one is
using a route through Bagrakot, Chunabhati, Chuikhim, Lolegaon, Lava, Algarah,
Pedong and Aritar. The other alternative route proposed is the one through and
the other one being ---- Damdim, Gorubathan, Ambiok, Lava, Kolbong, Kolakham,
Chhagey, Lingsakha and Aritar. Both these roads connect north Bengal with
Sikkim but don't cut through any forest land bypasses the forest lands.

"Both these
roads will avoid the forest land to reach Sikkim. Thus both the interests -
national security and conservation of forest - will be secured," said N C
Bahuguna, the head of forest force. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests
(Wild Life).

According to
sources, the entire stretch of both the proposed alignments already exist
except for a small patch of about 2-3 km at Chhagey to Aritar which has to be
constructed. The entire stretch of the road from Kolbong Chhagey to Aritar will
pass through Khasmahal area without disturbing any forest areas.

The Army is yet to
get NOC for the said project, but environmentalists fear that if the state
fails to put pressure on the Army, they might get the required clearance.